John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, has compared the Taleban and al-Qaeda to the Nazis, saying that British forces in Afghanistan are defending the country’s values as they did in the Second World War.

In an interview in The Times today, Mr Hutton says that, like the war to defeat Hitler, the military campaign in Afghanistan is “a vital national security mission” and not just a matter of foreign affairs.

“We know that we must tackle the [terrorist] threat at source, it is not just going to go away,” he says. “It is a struggle against fanatics that may not challenge our borders but challenges our way of life in the same way the Nazis did.” British troops may be a long way from home but they are “defending our values and that must be understood”.

Mr Hutton gives warning that the war in Afghanistan will be long and hard. “We will stay there as long as is necessary to secure all of our objectives – it’s going to be years,” he says.

“The key thing now is not that the Taleban or al-Qaeda can defeat us in Afghanistan, their tactic is to outlast us. That’s what we’ve got to deal with. That’s the nature of this counter-insurgency operation . . . It doesn’t lend itself to instantaneous results. This is a very complex, challenging environment for us to be operating in.”

His comments will be seen as a sign that the Government may be preparing to soften up public opinion for a possible increase in troops next year. Ministers are concerned that the public will not support a lengthy and dangerous war of attrition in Afghanistan, which has already led to the deaths of 134 British soldiers. Mr Hutton’s comments came as The Times learnt that village defence forces, similar to those developed by General David Petreaus, the US commander in Iraq, are to be piloted in Afghanistan as part of new tactics to halt the advance of the Taleban in the south of the country.

It is expected that the Afghan Government and the United Nations will reveal the plans in the new year. They will focus on “critical districts” that are in danger of falling to Taleban insurgents.

In tandem with Afghan and UNbacked reforms of local government, Nato forces will help to develop and mentor irregular district defence forces made up of local tribesmen. They will be similar to those created under the Sons of Iraq programme that was credited with reducing insurgent violence in Iraq.

Forty “critical districts” have been identified across Afghanistan and five are due to take part in pilot trials earlynext year.

Lieutenant-General Jim Dutton, the new British deputy commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, confirmed the plans for pilot schemes, adding that “it depends on how successful those are. They will be in areas that are dominated by US forces.”

He said that because of the limited forces available, Nato commanders will concentrate only on those areas where they can successfully clear out the Taleban and keep them out, in effect ceding control of some parts of the country to the insurgents.

The Afghan Government aims to create paid local “community councils” of tribal leaders in the 40 critical districts. The councils will sign community contracts with central government. In return for promising to “expel, deter and prevent” insurgents locally, the councils will receive government undertakings to provide additional security forces to defend them and to achieve reconstruction work.

A Western military official told The Times: “Under the contract, one element will be to raise and employ a certain number of young men, probably around 50 per district, for static security tasks. They will be coordinated with the army, accountable to the community councils and representative of the various tribes involved.”

The proposals are to be put forward as the first of up to 30,000 more US troops arrive in the country. While some will be used to support Afghan National Army forces in the critical districts, most will be deployed in provinces along Afghanistan’s ring road, where Western military planners say that 80 per cent of the country’s population is concentrated.

Some Western officials and Afghan tribal elders expressed scepticism about the plans. “It must be the communities who decide who represents them,” said a Western official who did not wish to be named. “If the community doesn’t believe that the new body represents them, it is doomed to fail.”

Another said: “If there is any interference from international forces, the locally raised forces won’t work. I can’t be optimistic, this needs to be better designed and thought up.”

Previous attempts to engage local communities have been dogged by factionalism and intertribal tensions.

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